Frakes Talks 'Star Patrol!'

Greg Braxton at the Los Angeles Times has put up an interview with Jonathan Frakes, who starred on the Next Generation as William T. Riker. In the interview, Frakes mentions he's signed on to direct 'Star Patrol!', a pilot for 20th Century Television:

"This is what I've really been waiting to do," Frakes said. He compared the project to Mel Brooks' "Spaceballs" and said the timing for it is right. "With the success of 'Galaxy Quest,' it's been shown that it's healthy to spoof one's self," he said. "We'll shoot it straight, so the dialogue will be really funny."

Pointing to William Shatner's recent Internet commercial making fun of his image, Frakes said he didn't think "Star Trek" fans would be turned off by the satire: "The fans are not as blind as we sometimes make them out to be. They are loyal, and we won't be doing a disservice to them. However, if we don't offend someone, we haven't done our jobs."

It's interesting to now see 'Star Patrol!' apparently being a series pilot - if I recall correctly, when it was first announced it was still going to be a movie.

In the rest of the interview, Frakes talks about 'Roswell', the WB series he's co-producing. According to Frakes, who will be directing the final two Roswell episodes of this season, the producers are executing a full relaunch for the show, in combination with its timeslot change:

"We really want to deal now with the mythology of the aliens," he said. "When the secret that these kids were aliens got out, there was really little for them to do other than stand around their lockers and talk about it. There are certainly enough teen angst shows."

The full article contains more info on the new 'Roswell' direction, as well as strong praise from two 20th Century Fox presidents for Frakes. Finally, in the article Frakes also mentions he's heard "in the rumor mill that there will be a movie for 2001", which he's "thrilled about it if it's true."